Leaving our gnatty problem behind, we departed Norfolk, Virginia and pointed the bow north again heading for New York. We arrived after two days and one night enjoying a sea of less than a meter. As we move into the higher latitudes, we’re seeing light in the sky before 4.20am with sunrise at 5.00am and sunset at 8.20pm which makes night passages far more enjoyable as it is easier to see other vessels. We stayed at an anchorage south of New York called Atlantic Highlands but we didn’t like all the wash from the ferry traffic nor the exposure to shifting winds plus we had a short weather window so we left on Saturday morning making our way up the Hudson River past all the names you hear of but never expect to see. We passed Coney Island, Brooklyn, Staten Island, then on up the East River past the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, Manhattan and the Freedom Tower, the Empire State Building and many famous bridges. We needed to time our passage through New York to pass Hells Gate where the Harlem River meets the East River with a tide race of over 5 knots. As it was, with clear skies after overnight rain, people were out in droves on many sightseeing vessels and their own yachts, and it was quite tricky avoiding fast moving incoming ships, crazy kayakers who took their lives into their hands for a high adrenalin paddle, the commercial mayhem of the Staten Island Ferries, and tugs pushing and pulling barges in the restricted waters. Add to that the noise of helicopters flying overhead and the noise of the city, we were all on constant lookout to ensure we made it through easily. We happened to pass two police boats on the river as well at the Roosevelt Four Freedom Park where Hillary Clinton was making her Presidential campaign launch.

We anchored at another of our favourite spots near Huntington, Long Island called Eatons Neck. It provides all round protection from strong winds and is a great spot to head over to town 1 mile away in the dinghy to see a movie, have dinner or reprovision at Waldbaums. During Hurricane Sandy in 2012, we kept an eye on the wind readings at this spot as we thought it would have been an ideal place to weather the storm. However, as luck would have it, it recorded the highest wind speeds of 92 knots during the storm. We saw no evidence anywhere that the Hurricane had had any effect on the area but residents told us it was really bad. I think we were lucky we weathered Hurricane Sandy in Freeport, The Bahamas. At least it was warm whereas Eatons Neck was slammed with wind then snow. This year It seems much cooler than our previous visit and we are seeing more weather events with two rain cold fronts in the past week.

Another favourite anchorage on Long Island is near the town of Orient, again a very protected quiet spot. Maynard always sets two alarms at anchor before bed. One is the anchor alarm on his Samsung tablet in case we drag anchor and as we had a long day ahead, he set the bedside alarm clock for 6.30am. When an alarm went off, I leapt out of bed like a good Captain’s wife, brushed my teeth, turned on the shower then noticed it was unusually dark outside. Feeling quite rotten, I went back into the cabin where Maynard asked me what on earth I was doing? “Well it’s awfully dark, but aren’t we leaving now?’ “No,” says the Captain. “It’s half past midnight. That was my anchor alarm going off due to a misread of some co-ordinates. I wondered what you were doing in there.” You’ve got to be joking! No wonder I felt as if I hadn’t had any sleep. Back to bed. At least no one can accuse me of being a slouch. We all thought it was pretty funny the next day.

We departed Orient in less than ¼ mile visibility of fog and a temperature of 12 deg c (53 deg f) and headed up to Massachussets, a distance of 86 miles.

The radar was working overtime with fishing vessels, ferries, day fishermen, sport fisher boats and all manner of radar signatures on the screen. In poor visibility we are supposed to sound our horn for 5 seconds every two minutes to alert other vessels of our position. We haven’t used the horn for 3 years and unfortunately, our first toot sounded like a long agonising honk from a sickly goose that just wouldn’t die as the compressor kept the honk going for at least 20 seconds. We had to resort to ringing our new beautiful functional solid stainless steel ship’s bell numerous times when we’d see a blip on the radar moving fast towards us. Our Marlow bell weighs around 30 – 40 lbs and has a beautiful full lustrous tone in the gloomy fog. It is so loud, one has to wear ear muffs when ringing the bell. After over 6 hours, the fog lifted a little and we saw the spume of a nearby whale. Another front was moving in so by the time we arrived in Mattapoisett, MA, the sun was out but the air was very cool with the impending front which arrived this morning with northerly gusts of 30 knots. Our horn is now fixed and cleaned and in good working order and we are now ready for any further foggy days.